Superheros and our fight against graft
Old habits die hard!
Whenever we are in trouble, we believe some messiah will come and provide salvation.
Our mythology supports this assumption with succession of god incarnates, our movies support the same belief with one hero single handedly bashing up all the bad guys while hundreds watch like mannequins, our politics reflects the same problem with successive generations of a particular family raising public expectations, though not fulfilling them and we keep swinging in the cycle of despair and hope and despair endlessly.
This wait for some one to come and deliver us is a phenomenon which is probably as old as humanity. Permit me to look at last twenty years for elaboration of my submission. And let us keep the focus on people who showed lot of promise in fighting systemic corruption, graft, malpractices.
Many of us will remember G K Khairnar, erstwhile Mumbai Deputy Municipal Commissioner who fought land mafia of Mumbai and began a drive against unauthorized construction. Within a short span of time, whole country was wanting to have a Khairnar in their city. He became the icon of fight against corruption. Sadly, the system overtook him and he was removed from the job and enquiries instituted against him.
Then there was V P Singh who became Prime Minister riding on anti corruption mood of the electorate on the issue of payoffs in Bofors gun deal. He was the new crusader against graft. However within eleven months, when his government became unstable, he unleashed Mandal recommendations and dragged the country into a never ending strife. Another casualty.
Then there was T N Seshan. The CEC treated politicians with contempt, enforced some existing but long compromised electoral rules and became the latest hero for masses. But the moment he retired, life went back to normal.
Recent weeks has seen two crusaders who have raised our hopes. Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, both have emerged on the scene promising to fight corruption in their own ways and the general public, frustrated over the recent scams have started to believe that these two are superheroes who will free us from the muck created by politicians.
But to our consternation, Anna and civil society team has been frustrated in negotiations with government’s stalling to such an extent that they are threatening to quit the Lokpal drafting panel. The politicians have dug out enough muck about members of civil society to vitiate the atmosphere and proved that later also live in glass houses. We can keep debating that a Noida plot as compared to 2G scam is nothing more than ant’s shit.
Baba and his supporters have been evicted from the scene in a manner more reminiscent of British action on satyagrahis. In coming next weeks if we will see all investigative agencies digging dirt on Baba, it should not come as a surprise. Indian governments may be selective in implementation of law, but when they decide to take action, they do not throw the book, they throw a bookshelf.
We are back where we started, square one. Or shall I say minus one as the scamsters are getting more brazen, scams even bigger and ruling alliance even more shameless protecting their ill gotten gains.
The point here is that we repose too much faith in individuals including those who do not deserve it. It is not possible for one individual’s good intention to fight this cancer and there is always a possibility that a good man may become bad due to greed, compromises, threat or opportunity.
After the individuals, now let’s look at the institutions.
CBI which was constituted to be impartial, pan India
In short every institution which has a responsibility of investigating corruption has been compromised beyond redemption.
What gives us hope that Lokpal (whether civil society version or government one) will not get compromised.
In this hopeless situation, whom do we turn to?
My submission is that having tried individuals and institutions and failed miserably, let us pose our faith in masses and empower them. Ultimately, in a democracy, they are the bosses.
What I am suggesting has been suggested earlier too, is probably as difficult to achieve as asking government to bring back the black money or enact a Lokpal bill as per civil society’s recommendations but the far reaching implications make the struggle worthwhile.
We have discussed above the possibility of Lokpal bill being compromised as other institutions. Just imagine the scenario if Lokpal as an institution is controlled by Digvijay Singh and Teesta Seetalwad!
Similarly, if in a few months time, government informs us that total black money parked in tax heavens is 28 crores (only) and majority of it has been recovered from Hassan Ali and it has done a wonderful job of fighting corruption, we would not have no leg to stand on.
So what do we do or more accurately, demand? Three things.
a) Make voting compulsory. No pan card or passport to anyone who is not in the voter list and a penalty of say Rs.5000 for not voting.
This would ensure that all of us, who are adept at writing comments and mouthing contemptuous phrases about politicians from our arm chairs are forced to go out in the sun and vote.
How this will affect our elected representatives. Let us look at the voting percentages of major political parties in last parliamentary election. Congress got 29 % of votes polled and BJP got 20% whereas total polling percentage was 60%. It means that out of every 100 voters on the list, 40 did not vote, 15 voted for Congress and 10 for BJP. The strength of those who did not vote was higher than combined strength of two prominent national parties!
These unpolled votes have the potential of becoming an alternative that we say we need but decry that there is none.
There is another angle too. We blame the voting public for voting these scoundrels again and again because of caste, region, money, liquor and various other influencers. But the so called educated public which believes that such influencers would not work in its environment has eight times more leverage and does not use it.
b) Give us right to reject all: This is the answer to the rhetorical question: Where is the option? The option is to reject all. There needs to be a provision for a voter to reject all candidates and if total votes favouring rejection of all exceeds the highest vote getter, the election is held again.
How nice it will be for voters of UP to reject both Maya and Mulayam in one shot! How fantastic it will feel if a Punjab voter is able to say both Amrinder and Badal are rejected! Bring me a third one. Even thinking about such an eventuality, makes me feel like a king.
c) Right to recall: If voters are not happy with the performance of an elected representative they can decide to recall him / her, it would require a petition to election commission from 5% of total votes in the constituency.
What makes an MP or MLA arrogant is the simple belief that once elected he has full five years to loot us. At the end of the term, he only has to fool five more than the runner up to get re-elected. This job security is what makes them feel they own us while we ought to have elected them as our servents. Imagine saying, “Hey Ram Prasad, you voted against that bill in assembly, your services are terminated.”
How nice!
I would be living in a fool’s paradise to say that the political class will give in and accept these changes in the electoral rules. They will not cut off their own hands.
But asking for a Lokpal bill containing all civil society provisions is also asking for their arm. Asking for black money and capital punishment for corrupt is asking them to gouge their own eyes. We are demanding these as we believe that if enough pressure is applied, one day they would forced to give in.
So why not work on a solution which does not need an individual or institution as enabler, but empowers the electorate, the general public, the aam aadmi.
